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Mechman says I have a bad ground!?!?!?!?!? Its why my alternator went. Help troubleshooting?


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So I have a 370 amp mechmam alt. After less than a year of use it failed and sent it to mechman and the stator/rotors were said to have failed due to a bad ground.....................

So I swapped my old stock alternator back in and have never had a problem with that alt. Ran it for years with a huge system and never had a problem.

I have the big 3 done. Connections are tight. Like retard tight. Alt to engine block done. And engine block to chassis.

Pure copper wiring. 

It makes no sense to me that I have a bad ground I think their alt just shit the bed and they didnt want to admit. 

Since I'm in Canada I paid 200 bucks to have it shipped back and forth on top of the the 800 dollar alt I dont want to fuck it again.

In the event i am wrong........

.........Is there a way I can test my grounds using a multimeter? 

 

Any help would be appreciated thanks

 

 

Daily driver

  • Crescendo Audio Encore 4.5k
  • Fi SP4v2 18" ( 5.5 cube vented tuned 27hz)
  • Hertz Millie mid-range, tweets, xovers
  • Hertz SPL Show 10" mid-bass ( 1 cube sealed box)
  • Hertz hdcp 4 channel amp
  • 370 amp mechman hairpin
  • 2x d3400 XS Power batteries
  • 2/0 gauge 100% ofc welding/ground cable (big 3 done)
  • 40 ft.2 second skin pro/ 40 ft.2 dynamat extreme ( doors sealed)

 

 

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I personally don't see how a bad ground would cause an alt to go. Hopefully @MECHMAN
could drop some knowledge.

 

Anyways... To check your ground, put a load on your alt, with the ground on your load tester connected to the frame somewhere. You could turn up your system too and it would accomplish the same. From there you want to check the voltage differential between chassis(or whatever ground you're using) and alternator case

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I have a mechmam billet 370 and ran it for 3 years with no ground on it. I just had the 3 mounting locations and it never gave out.. only thing that made it eat shit was high rpm. High output alternators don’t like high rpm 

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17 hours ago, will77530 said:

Pics of setup would help 

 

and mechman posted a video a while back about how those alts need to be grounded a specific way so may not be bullshit

Sorry Will no pictures as the webpage says my pictures are too big. Apparently this forum was built in 1970 (even cannabis forums let you post full 4k pictures for free)

I asked them about that and this is the answer I got

"There are only two ways to wire an alternator, the right way or the wrong way. Because the wrong way would be wiring it backwards and something would burn up.

It’s an upgraded positive cable from the alternator to the battery and a new ground wire from the alternator case(mounting bolt) through the RVC sensor to the battery.

Well crimped, copper terminals with 1/0 copper wire.

That’s about it. My 250 has been on my van for 4 years with 17 batteries supplying 16k+ clamped power"

 

14 hours ago, SnowDrifter said:

I personally don't see how a bad ground would cause an alt to go. Hopefully @MECHMAN
could drop some knowledge.

 

Anyways... To check your ground, put a load on your alt, with the ground on your load tester connected to the frame somewhere. You could turn up your system too and it would accomplish the same. From there you want to check the voltage differential between chassis(or whatever ground you're using) and alternator case

Thanks I will try this

10 hours ago, Miguels said:

I have a mechmam billet 370 and ran it for 3 years with no ground on it. I just had the 3 mounting locations and it never gave out.. only thing that made it eat shit was high rpm. High output alternators don’t like high rpm 

My system on paper has 5500 watts worth of AMPS

(But I dont use the full 1000 watts on my 4 channel I use 500)

So 4500watt mono divided by 12v = 375 amp

500watt 4 channel divided by 12v = 41.6 amp

Total: 421 amp draw from my sound system.

(Hope my math and formulas are correct)

Not including air conditioner and head unit and shit. Is my alternator too small for my system?

The mechman idles at 240amp

 

 

My question is why has my 140amp stock alternator been running its bag off for 5 years with no issues? 

I'm definately underpowering my system with that so it would be running at 100% capacity all the time.  I know this because after an hour and a half my batteries use their juice up and my bass cuts out cuz stock alt cant keep up.

So why would a 370amp mechman shit the bed in less than a year. 

When a stock just takes abuse all day and doesnt skip a beat?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daily driver

  • Crescendo Audio Encore 4.5k
  • Fi SP4v2 18" ( 5.5 cube vented tuned 27hz)
  • Hertz Millie mid-range, tweets, xovers
  • Hertz SPL Show 10" mid-bass ( 1 cube sealed box)
  • Hertz hdcp 4 channel amp
  • 370 amp mechman hairpin
  • 2x d3400 XS Power batteries
  • 2/0 gauge 100% ofc welding/ground cable (big 3 done)
  • 40 ft.2 second skin pro/ 40 ft.2 dynamat extreme ( doors sealed)

 

 

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